Authors pushing books

[BearMountainBooks]

edit: FOUND INSTRUCTIONS!!! Am polling away...

And now I have the even dumber question...how the heck do I create a poll??? I can see where it says "include a poll?" but...no place to actually enter the questions...help!

More study needed...

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I'd like some clarity also from the moderators. I feel I'm skirting the line with my stuff and it's beginning to feel a little awkward posting stories. Selfish, maybe? Anyway, I'm all for a spam free writers' corner, whatever it takes.

EDIT: Actually, I'll do it myself. I won't be part of the spam any longer.

Posting stories is fine. Talking about covers, etc, is also good. Going in and saying, "Buy my book!" will go in the new section. Similarly, posting that a work is finished in a thread about writing it, will be fine.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I'd like some clarity also from the moderators. I feel I'm skirting the line with my stuff and it's beginning to feel a little awkward posting stories. Selfish, maybe? Anyway, I'm all for a spam free writers' corner, whatever it takes.

EDIT: Actually, I'll do it myself. I won't be part of the spam any longer.

You are not part of the spam!

Nobody who posts here regularly is part of the bookspam problem. The problem is authors who are fairly new to ebooks, googling for places to advertise, showing up here (because googling for *anything* about ebooks is likely to bring up some Mobileread links), and posting "I HAVE AN EBOOK; BUY IT FROM [amazon/smashwords/my website/all of those]" in one or more forums, picked by whatever keywords struck the author as most relevant.

*Your* ebook/story posts are on-topic, posted in the forum you think would most likely to read them. And if someone wants to discuss details (what's the setting, why'd you pick that name, what does the cover mean, how can I get it in tealdoc format), you'd answer them. (Even if the answer is "tealdoc? What kind of throwback are you--update to epub at once!") If someone asked "why that price?" you'd answer that, too.

Authors who are willing to discuss their books, in the general context of ebooks & ebook readers, are not the problem. The problems include (1) Authors who are offended that anyone has questions about their book, formats, choice of online host, or forum selected to advertise, and (2) Authors who think that mentioning their book earns them a right to a flurry of "I'll be rushing right over to buy that, thanks!" replies.

And even those aren't actually "problems;" they're just "posts a lot of us would like to see corralled into one place, not scattered throughout the forums pretending to be discussion-starters." I don't mind the "I have a book buy buy buy!" posts; I've found books I liked that way. I'd just like them to be a little more contained.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

You are not part of the spam!

Nobody who posts here regularly is part of the bookspam problem. The problem is authors who are fairly new to ebooks, googling for places to advertise, showing up here (because googling for *anything* about ebooks is likely to bring up some Mobileread links), and posting "I HAVE AN EBOOK; BUY IT FROM [amazon/smashwords/my website/all of those]" in one or more forums, picked by whatever keywords struck the author as most relevant.

*Your* ebook/story posts are on-topic, posted in the forum you think would most likely to read them. And if someone wants to discuss details (what's the setting, why'd you pick that name, what does the cover mean, how can I get it in tealdoc format), you'd answer them. (Even if the answer is "tealdoc? What kind of throwback are you--update to epub at once!") If someone asked "why that price?" you'd answer that, too.

Authors who are willing to discuss their books, in the general context of ebooks & ebook readers, are not the problem. The problems include (1) Authors who are offended that anyone has questions about their book, formats, choice of online host, or forum selected to advertise, and (2) Authors who think that mentioning their book earns them a right to a flurry of "I'll be rushing right over to buy that, thanks!" replies.

And even those aren't actually "problems;" they're just "posts a lot of us would like to see corralled into one place, not scattered throughout the forums pretending to be discussion-starters." I don't mind the "I have a book buy buy buy!" posts; I've found books I liked that way. I'd just like them to be a little more contained.

Whether it is spam or not, I can't escape the feeling that by posting what I write I'm somehow 'gaming' this community. It's highly irrational I know that, but I'm not a rational person, and by Zeus's beard, I hope never to attain that skill.

[Worldwalker]

I like chatting with authors; for me, that's one of the attractions of MobileRead. The problem isn't authors who want to hang out and talk about writing; it's people (not always authors) whose only activity on MobileRead is to post advertisements for books. I also like buying books, of course. I just don't want the ads for them everywhere. They've made Deals and Author's Corner useless for almost anything else, and turn up in News, Recommendations, and the Sony forum too. I can't wait until we have the Book Fair to keep them all together.

On a related note, I wonder if there needs to be some more effective way of pointing out to newbies that we have various specialized sections -- the software forums, the device forums, etc. -- that they should be posting their questions in. I've seen an increasing number of questions (I notice the Calibre tech support ones the most) turning up in all sorts of random forums where they're much less likely to be read by the people who can answer them than if they were posted in the proper section. I usually report them for moving when I notice them, but that's still slowing down the process of getting the frantic person with the bricked reader or collection-eating software or whatever the advice he needs. Then there are the ones who either necropost, often on threads years old, or attach their questions to totally unrelated threads. I'm wondering if people are following Google hits straight to some random section or thread and posting there, without ever seeing MR's main forum menu. Perhaps something could be added to the account registration process (a big "READ THIS FIRST BEFORE YOU POST" link?) to direct them to the right places?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I like chatting with authors; for me, that's one of the attractions of MobileRead. The problem isn't authors who want to hang out and talk about writing; it's people (not always authors) whose only activity on MobileRead is to post advertisements for books. I also like buying books, of course. I just don't want the ads for them everywhere. They've made Deals and Author's Corner useless for almost anything else, and turn up in News, Recommendations, and the Sony forum too. I can't wait until we have the Book Fair to keep them all together.

On a related note, I wonder if there needs to be some more effective way of pointing out to newbies that we have various specialized sections -- the software forums, the device forums, etc. -- that they should be posting their questions in. I've seen an increasing number of questions (I notice the Calibre tech support ones the most) turning up in all sorts of random forums where they're much less likely to be read by the people who can answer them than if they were posted in the proper section. I usually report them for moving when I notice them, but that's still slowing down the process of getting the frantic person with the bricked reader or collection-eating software or whatever the advice he needs. Then there are the ones who either necropost, often on threads years old, or attach their questions to totally unrelated threads. I'm wondering if people are following Google hits straight to some random section or thread and posting there, without ever seeing MR's main forum menu. Perhaps something could be added to the account registration process (a big "READ THIS FIRST BEFORE YOU POST" link?) to direct them to the right places?

That is done where we can in the "Introduce Yourself" thread - but, of course, not every newbie posts in there ....

[Worldwalker]

I never posted in "Introduce Yourself".

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...828#post996828

There's a 2-year-old thread about using Calibre and the Sony Library software in combination. For some reason, a new member decided that the ideal way of getting help with a problem involving the resizing of images in RTF to LRF conversions could best be addressed, not by posting "I'm having a problem with image resizing", but to attach his question to the end of that years-old thread on a different topic.

I know there are forums where the mods and/or members will have a cow if you start a thread related to any topic which has ever been mentioned in the history of the forum. "There was a discussion of that four years ago, why are you starting a new thread, n00b?" It's possible, I suppose, that the people attaching unrelated posts to the ends of ancient threads are accustomed to that kind of environment. But whatever the reason, people exhuming ancient threads and hanging unrelated posts on them isn't doing much for forum content and readability. I really can't see any reason they're doing it that doesn't involve a) a belief that they're not allowed to start new topics, and b) a search engine.

So we have, in the Sony forum, a years-old thread on the end of which is affixed a question that should be in the Calibre forum. That's not helping anyone.

I think there needs to be more effective "welcome to MR, here's how to do stuff" information made very, very obvious to new posters (especially if they're guests clicking "reply" and being sent to the registration page) so that questions get to the places where they'll get answers.

[GeoffC]

Yes, I know exactly what you are referring to ...

The only suggestion I have had to this is that the registration process becomes a little more complicated by asking each newbie to post in the "Introduce Yourself" thread - but that alone will not solve the problem.

Each 'old' thread does have a 'warning' on it to indicate its age; so that's not working - perhaps they should be 'locked' after no posts in (say) 3 months.

I have also suggested that a small dedicated group looks after these newbie posts/ers.

No matter what is put in place it will still not totally stop the problem. I know how difficult it is to get answers to questions, the search routine does not, on occasions, narrow down things as well as it ought to be able to.....

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I think there needs to be more effective "welcome to MR, here's how to do stuff" information made very, very obvious to new posters (especially if they're guests clicking "reply" and being sent to the registration page) so that questions get to the places where they'll get answers.

Agreed and has been suggested before ....

[Worldwalker]

It's not a huge deal now ... only the occasional necroposting ... but as the ebook community grows, and as the user demographic shifts from early adopters to, um, less technically clueful people, it's only going to get worse. Topic drift is a problem on any forum (look at this discussion!), and a worse problem than most people realize because it prevents the right members from connecting with the right topics, which degrades the utility of the forum. This mutant sort of necroposting, where there's little if any connection between the original topic and the new post, is kind of a case of pre-drifted topics, which isn't good at all.

And this isn't something I see much if any of elsewhere. So there has to be a reason why MR in particular is a hotspot of this sort of thing. The only reason that I've been able to come up with that makes any kind of sense is that due to MR's prominence in search results, a much larger percentage of new users arrive via a hit on a post in a thread than via the main portal, and of course since only a small percentage of the threads are active, this means that if some percentage of those new arrivals just stick their question on the thread they landed on, the odds are it's an old thread.

Auto-locking old threads would probably be a good idea. True, old threads can sometimes become relevant again, but if that happens, the first poster can just link to the original thread for people to read before continuing the discussion. Limiting posting in inactive threads to people who aren't quite so new would solve both problems, but at the expense, I suspect, of far too much work; just locking the old ones would probably be sufficient. At the very least, more intrusive newbie orientation info, and a more obvious and educational warning on old threads, would probably help.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

It's not a huge deal now ... only the occasional necroposting ... but as the ebook community grows, and as the user demographic shifts from early adopters to, um, less technically clueful people, it's only going to get worse. Topic drift is a problem on any forum (look at this discussion!), and a worse problem than most people realize because it prevents the right members from connecting with the right topics, which degrades the utility of the forum. This mutant sort of necroposting, where there's little if any connection between the original topic and the new post, is kind of a case of pre-drifted topics, which isn't good at all.

And this isn't something I see much if any of elsewhere. So there has to be a reason why MR in particular is a hotspot of this sort of thing. The only reason that I've been able to come up with that makes any kind of sense is that due to MR's prominence in search results, a much larger percentage of new users arrive via a hit on a post in a thread than via the main portal, and of course since only a small percentage of the threads are active, this means that if some percentage of those new arrivals just stick their question on the thread they landed on, the odds are it's an old thread.

Auto-locking old threads would probably be a good idea. True, old threads can sometimes become relevant again, but if that happens, the first poster can just link to the original thread for people to read before continuing the discussion. Limiting posting in inactive threads to people who aren't quite so new would solve both problems, but at the expense, I suspect, of far too much work; just locking the old ones would probably be sufficient. At the very least, more intrusive newbie orientation info, and a more obvious and educational warning on old threads, would probably help.

Shoot, I think it's far worse on other forums I frequent. You must not be on the "right" forums. Seriously, I saw a thread the other day (on the bottom of my screen--related topics) and was all excited because it sounded of interest...and when I clicked reply, I got the warning about it being old. Darn. I didn't post because obviously the discussion had already died, but a lot of forums don't even have that warning.

Now that said, it might help if the "related" discussions didn't have very old threads pop up--it's happened to me twice now.

Maria

[GeoffC]

New Sub-Forum for promotions ....

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

New Sub-Forum for promotions ....

Huzzah!!

[beachwanderer]

"Thanks" going to the Mods. Now let's see if it works out. (And drop some hints here and there ... Say no more, hey (wink, wink), say no more.)

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by beachwanderer

"Thanks" going to the Mods. Now let's see if it works out. (And drop some hints here and there ... Say no more, hey (wink, wink), say no more.)

Does your wife like photographs? Does she?